Dixon Water Foundation Josey Pavilion

The Josey Pavilion is the first certified Living Building in Texas: it is self-sufficient, providing its own water and energy with the least impact on the natural realm. The client sought a comfortable education facility that would embrace and express the simplicity and serenity of the North Texas prairie while serving as a lens through which the land could be better understood and appreciated. Just like the Heritage Live Oak that defines the site, the building enhances the visitor experience by shading the sun, buffering the wind, and providing protected views.

The pavilion supports the Dixon Water Foundation’s mission to promote healthy watersheds through sustainable land management and foster human connection to land and water. Careful biophilic siting strategies provide a sheltered perch, an enticing place of comfort from which visitors can survey the horizon. The building consists of two low-slung, gabled roofs that form a shady courtyard around a Heritage Live Oak; these roofs are slightly pulled apart to make room for a large, shared gutter that expresses the harvesting of rainwater.

The beauty in the design for the Josey Pavilion lies in how the simple, low-lying forms speak to the surrounding native prairie land.

The Josey Pavilion was designed without active heating or cooling; it adapts to daily weather conditions. The pavilion has become an integral part of the Dixon Water Foundation’s story: how grazing practices, together with the built environment, can lead to a deeper understanding of rangeland conservation linked to habitat restoration.

The Dixon Water Foundation and Lake Flato Architects embrace the importance of an axe stroke as they write their signature on the face of the land. The Betty and Clint Josey Pavilion was a well-chosen branch in which they have indelibly signed their signatures upon the land for generations to appreciate nature in nature. Professor Lisa Bellows

Biology, Agroecology Professor at North Central Texas College